


start of something

by soldierly



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Dating, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-03
Updated: 2011-12-03
Packaged: 2017-10-26 19:58:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/287271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soldierly/pseuds/soldierly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve's idea of an awesome date is going to the aquarium. Tony's skeptical, but rolls with it (and likes it more than he expected to).</p>
            </blockquote>





	start of something

"… the aquarium," Tony says, because really, _really_ – he is the kind of guy who takes jets to Paris for dates, buys out restaurants, goes to swimming pools on top of buildings. If he wants to see fish, he'll take Stark Industries' submarine and go for a cruise around the Great Barrier Reef.

But Steve's looking at him, ever earnest and with that sort of soft _I'm excited_ pinch at the corner of his eyes, tickets clutched in one hand. Behind him, the aquarium looms, and across the river is Cincinnati, brightly lit and gorgeous (it's only gorgeous at night, Tony's figured out, but when it's pretty it's _really_ pretty – or so Steve put it).

"Yeah!" Steve says. "I've never been to one, and this one is _nice_. I want to see sharks," he finishes, and oh god, he looks like someone's stepped on his favorite kitten (and they _do_ have cats now; there's six that Tony has seen, and he's sure there's more lurking in the corners of Avengers Tower, waiting to ambush him). "Uh, never mind, I'm sure they – "

"No, it's." Tony sucks at taking his foot out of his mouth, he really does. "It's fine. I've – actually, I don't think I've ever been to an aquarium." Aquariums had never really seemed like an adult dating venue, and Tony had skipped straight past the awkward-teenage-movie-date stage and gone to bringing people home from bars and dazzling whoever was closest (and/or most attractive) at charity events. But Steve – Steve had never been any of those. Tony didn't even know how it had _started,_ the two of them. Probably because Tony had never really slept, and Steve had issues with it. _I feel like I'm not going to wake up_ , he'd said one night, when Tony had managed to get him to nurse a glass of gin and tonic. So they bonded over insomnia, he supposed, and then Steve had asked _Can I come down and watch you work?_ and he had, and the next night he'd brought down his sketchbook, and on and on.

Steve offers his arm, actually _offers his arm_. "That makes two of us, then. Shall we?"

Tony has to bite down a smile – god, when did he turn into a girl – and slides his hand into the crook of Steve's elbow. "Lead on, Cap."

He has to give it to Steve: once they get inside, the place is kinda cool. He spends the majority of his time watching Steve, though – the way he gawks at the enormous tanks that wrap around overhead, presses to the glass as rays glide overhead, the way he tugs his fingers back from a tiny crab that scuttles close to them at the petting pool, then tentatively reaches out again, until the little thing is nosed up against his fingertip. Not his typical date (exactly Steve's: dorky and catering to those prone to wonder), but with Steve it _works_ , and when Steve tugs his sleeve to point out the tiny garden eels, his eyes shining ( _They're so little, Tony, look, oh_ ), he figures that yeah, this is right where he wants to be.


End file.
